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AIPAC Director: U.S. Is ‘In Danger of Turning Away’ From Focus on Middle East

By

Scott L. Greenberg

Mar 7, 2011 4:15 pm ET

Howard Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, told a $500-a-head cocktail party Sunday night – a fund-raiser for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs – that Washington is largely ignoring Israel as unrest spreads in the Middle East.

“New people are coming in with an agenda that is purely domestic in nature,” Mr. Kohr said. “If you ask any of the president’s senior advisers, it’s about the economy.”

“We have a situation where we have a Congress that is in danger of turning away. And we have an administration that has responded to that,” he said. “This is not one of those calm moments when you want to think about educating our elected officials more than we have because so many of them are new.”

All this, he said, comes at a time when Israel’s future is particularly difficult to predict.

“Today, unlike three months ago, we don’t know. We don’t know if tomorrow, if the king of Jordan is going to be there in the same way. That the regime is going to be there is just an unknown,” he said. “If Israel tomorrow has to think about defending itself against Egypt or, God forbid, Jordan, defense spending will go through the roof,” Mr. Kohr said…